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AUSTIN Even as Texas Democrats on Friday blamed state Republicans for hardships faced by millions of state residents, they appeared to be road testing a message for voters next year: Government doesnt have to be this inept.

This weeks upending of electricity and drinking water supplies by arctic temperatures was predictable and preventable, top state Democrats said in a Zoom call with journalists.

While demanding probes of what happened and offering policy proposals for realigning the states power grid and safeguarding other crucial infrastructure, the Democrats signaled they will spend many months reminding state voters of one thing:

Austin is run by Republicans who arent inclined to govern vigorously and are in thrall to corporations and rich campaign contributors.

You wouldnt run a company with people that dont believe in business, said former presidential candidate and federal housing secretary Julin Castro.

You cant run a government effectively with people who dont believe in government, but thats what we have in Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick and the rest of them. That needs to change, Castro said. After what happened these past few days, a lot more Texans see that very clearly as well.

Spokesmen for Abbott, the Republican governor, and Patrick, the GOP lieutenant governor, did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment.

Castro, who has been mentioned as a possible candidate against Abbott next year, may have offered the strongest criticism of the two-term governor of the five politicians who joined the call, which was arranged by the Texas Democratic Party.

Earlier this week, Castro noted, Abbott issued successive announcements that hes declaring as emergency items for the Legislature an overhaul of the transmission grids manager, The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, and requirements that generating plants be winterized.

Dont be fooled and think its decisive action because its merely political theater, said Castro, a former San Antonio mayor.

Gov. Abbott follows the same playbook, whether were talking about his failures with Hurricane Harvey, the coronavirus pandemic or the events of the last few days, he said.

When citizens feel the pain of his incompetence and inaction, he suddenly declares that theres an emergency that needs to be placed on the agenda of the Legislature as though these problems didnt exist before, as though he and Republicans havent been in charge of the state for the last two decades and didnt have any opportunity to do anything about it.

U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, called this weeks loss of power, heat and water for millions of Texans a preventable crisis.

He urged state leaders to investigate, require winterization of power plants and tap rainy-day dollars to pay for them not consumers wallets.

Houston Democratic U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said its time for all of Texas to be connected with national grids and for its electricity industry to be federally regulated.

It happened because we had a failed governmental system that did not turn ERCOT upside down and change its structure so that we had weatherization and hardening of our assets, she said.

Castros brother, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio, said that he and nine Democratic House colleagues from Texas this week wrote to the Public Utility Commission and ERCOT asking if they had a plan for distributing equitable rolling outages and why grid managers waited until Sunday to announce outages and other measures to stabilize the power grid.

We received essentially non-responses, Castro said. If you look at the response from the Public Utility Commission in particular, which oversees ERCOT and the commissioners of the Public Utility Commission, who are appointed by Greg Abbott, their response is one of the most arrogant responses Ive ever seen from a government agency.

While ERCOT replied to the Democrats query in a three-page letter, Commission Chairwoman DeAnn T. Walker gave them just five sentences. Abbott has made ERCOT reform an emergency item this legislative session, she wrote.

Commission spokesman Andrew Barlow, asked about Castros criticism, said the regulatory agency is wholeheartedly committed to the process of discovery and discussion that is now underway with the grid restoration to normal operating conditions.

On the Democrats call, Michael and Anna Mendez of Austin recounted how they and their 10-year-old son lost power for 62 hours and were forced to forage for firewood and sleep beside and cook using their apartments fireplace. At night, they took turns getting up every two hours to replenish the fire, Michael Mendez said.

It was rough, he said. We just ultimately felt abandoned, and we feel like our city leaders and our state leaders just literally left us out in the cold.

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Democrats look ahead to 2022 campaign with plans to hammer Texas GOP as inept in running government - The Dallas Morning News